There are some significant changes in the 2000-2001 academic calendar as compared to pervious years. The most significant for many students is that classes will be held on Wednesday, November 22nd, which is the day before Thanksgiving. Also, the start of B Term this year is on a Monday, with B Term ending on Tuesday, December 19th.
The person who is responsible for making drafts of the academic calendar is Charles Kornik, the Administrator of Academic Programs. The Cabinet approves the final calendar. According to Kornik, there were many factors that led to the academic calendar that we are using for this year.
One issue, according to Kornik, that had to be addressed was that several departments, including Physics, Chemistry, and several of the engineering departments, did not want classes to begin on a Wednesday. They were worried that starting classes on a Wednesday led to the wasting of a lab day for their classes. The administration wanted the term to end with enough time to get grades in from faculty before the Christmas holiday weekend. Reasons, according to Kornik, that the administration needs that time include the need to verify every students' academic standing so that financial aid and tuition bills can be adjusted in time to be mailed out prior to the start of C Term. The Cabinet decided to balance both needs by holding classes the day before Thanksgiving. Kornik mentioned that he conducted a survey of twenty colleges that WPI likes to compare itself to, and found that approximately half held classes the day before Thanksgiving.
Kornik mentioned that the idea of starting Term C later was considered. However, the idea was not chosen because it would cause Graduation to have to be held later than normal. According to Kornik, it is tradition that WPI will not hold its Graduation ceremony on Memorial Day because, in his own words, it is "undesirable."
Kornik said that the decision to hold classes the day before Thanksgiving was controversial, even in the Cabinet. Kornik also said that "everyone is nervous" because no one knows how this will turn out. He mentioned that faculty members do have the discretion to cancel class on that day, however they would need to reschedule that class.
Once the academic calendar for a year is finalized, it goes to Residential Services so that they can decide when the residence halls will open and close. The decision to end B term on a Tuesday meant that Residential Services decided to close the residence halls on Wednesday, December 20th at noon.
According to Philip Clay, the Director of Residential Services, when he began his work at WPI, the end of B Term was on a Thursday and the dorms closed Friday at noon. About four years ago, according to Clay, the decision was made to close the dorms on Saturday at noon instead of Friday, hoping it would cut down on the number of people who had to stay after the dorms closed. Clay felt that this year it was not reasonable to keep the dorms open until Saturday if classes were finished on Tuesday. Therefore, he explained, the decision was made to close on Wednesday at noon, figuring it would not help many students if the closing date were Thursday or even Friday at noon.
Clay said, "We know we will need to deal with a lot of exceptions." Clay said that a closing notice will be sent out to all on-campus students telling them when the residence halls will close, and what needs to be done before they leave. As will be mentioned in the letter, if you cannot leave by that closing date, you need to send a request in writing to Residential Services asking for an exception and detailing why. Clay said that those decisions are made on an individual basis.
The results of a poll conducted by SGA on the subject were included in the October 3rd issue of Tech News. According to that poll, 79% of respondents said that having classes on the day before Thanksgiving affects their travel plans. 84% of respondents said that the shortened breaks have negatively affected plans or arrangements that they have made.
The academic calendar for the 2001-2002 school year was announced on Thursday, October 5th. This calendar is different than the one that we are using for this year. Among the changes is the fact that classes will not be held on the day before Thanksgiving next year. According to Charles Kornik, this is at least partially because of student objections. He said, "We do listen to students." He also indicated that President Parrish wants to have more long-term planning. This would require, according to Kornik, planning academic calendars for several years this year. He says that the administration will look at how this year's and next year's calendars work out to determine what kind of calendar is used in the future. He did not rule out using a calendar like this year's again. At this point, the Residential schedule for next year has not been determined, according to Philip Clay.